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Today's top stories

If he sees the story shared, he replies "fake news from 2013" and says the flag still regularly flies in the town.

The original article cited concerns that the St George flag had been “hijacked by the far right” and could be offensive to Muslims.

It was picked up by national newspapers and even prompted a letter from communities secretary Eric Pickles, who said the ban was “a spectacular misjudgement” that “brought the fine town of Radstock into disrepute”.

But minutes of the meeting in May 2013 say the council was debating buying a Union Flag and “at no point was there a proposal to ban any other flag”.

The minutes added news coverage had “distorted the facts”.

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Current mayor Rupert Bevan, who was not on the council at the time, said: “To my knowledge the subject hasn’t been mentioned within the last five years and came about in the first place like a storm in a teacup.

“None of the original dramatis personae are on Radstock Town Council these days.

“This is not to say that we steer clear of trouble like Bournemouth landladies but we try not to let pettyfogging issues get the better of our collective reason.”